Continue discussions to identify a water source close to the well site as part of an effort to reduce truck traffic.

ERIE -- In a highly charged vote Tuesday night, the town's Board of Trustees decided to let a six-month moratorium on new oil and gas operations expire Monday while entering into agreements with energy producers that will place tough regulations on their operations.

Several Erie trustees hailed the agreements, known as memoranda of understanding, or MOUs, as the toughest rules yet to be placed on oil and gas operators anywhere in the country. The agreements, which involve Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Encana Oil & Gas, passed 6-1.

"Colorado is known for having some of the strictest regulations in the country, and we just raised that bar," Mayor Joe Wilson said.

But dozens of residents packed Town Hall to plead with their elected leaders not to sign off on the agreements and to instead extend the moratorium until results come in from a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment air quality monitoring study being conducted at a well site near Red Hawk Elementary School.

Trista Rucks, who lives in downtown Erie, said people are leaving town or choosing not to locate in Erie because of the oil and gas drilling.

"They don't want to be in the middle of frackland, and neither do I," she said. "I didn't move to Commerce City, I moved to Historic Downtown Erie."

The town clerk had to open an overflow room at Town Hall to accommodate the crowd, many of whom joined together in a boisterous anti-fracking rally and march before the meeting. Protesters held signs that read "MOUs are meaningless" and "No new permits for oil and gas."

A growing group of residents, led by activist group Erie Rising, has been urging the town's elected leaders all year to put a stop to gas extraction operations in Erie, claiming emissions from well sites are contaminating the air and causing health problems such as respiratory illness, bloody noses and asthma.

Particular attention has been placed on the effects of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, through which oil and gas operators pump a water/sand/chemical mixture into the ground to loosen up subterranean deposits of gas. Some of those fracking chemicals have been identified as cancer-causing.

But Erie's trustees have said repeatedly that they don't have the authority to permanently ban drilling because it is a state-regulated activity. Several trustees said the regulatory agreements considered Tuesday are a great compromise that allows the town to control drilling without running afoul of state law.

The agreements outline conditions that Anadarko and Encana will have to meet when drilling in town. Requirements include the use of steel-rim berms around tanks and separators, closed-loop systems for drilling and completion operations, a more effective vapor recovery unit for new wells, and a ban on the use of fracking fluid products containing diesel, 2-Butoxyethanol or benzene.

Angie Nordstrum, a member of Erie Rising, told the trustees that the agreements are not the right way to go.

"Don't sign unenforceable agreements with these operators," she said. "Please respect democracy -- represent your community and not industry when you vote tonight."

In an email, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Executive Director Matt Lepore said the best management practices contained in Erie's MOUs "can be incorporated into a COGCC permit to drill as enforceable conditions of the permit."

The tougher regulations would need to be included with the operator's application for permit to drill, he wrote.

Brian Cain, an Anadarko spokesman, said his company has been working with Erie for months to come up with an agreeable set of local rules. He said the MOUs that were drafted "are like nothing else in the state."

"There is a great regulatory framework in the state already," he said. "In this particular situation, the local government wanted to go a little further, and we were happy to work with them."

Public comment got testy at times Tuesday, with several residents saying they wouldn't stop fighting drilling in town.

"Even though we cannot stop you from letting the moratorium expire or signing these agreements, we're not going away," resident Jennifer French said.

Several trustees urged their colleagues to extend the moratorium for another 60 days until air quality study results come back.

"This is something that is measurable, and we have, as a community, been talking about getting that information," Trustee Janice Moore said.

But in the end, Moore was the sole board member to vote against signing the agreements.

Trustee Mark Gruber, who pushed for a new moratorium to buy more time, said ultimately the MOUs were well crafted and represented an important accomplishment for Erie.

"No other municipality in the United States has pulled this off," he said. "We've done it."

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